A small mining community was picked Thursday as having Utah’s best-tasting drinking water.

Simplot Phosphates, which runs a mine 15 miles north of Vernal, in the state’s northeastern corner, won top honors in a blind taste test organized as part of the Rural Water Association of Utah's annual conference at the Dixie Center in St. George.

Henry Allred, who works for Simplot, said the water supply comes out of a complex of nearby springs and is used only by the few hundred mine employees.

A six-judge panel narrowed a field of dozens of submissions ahead of Thursday’s final test, and then three judges picked the final winner from among three finalists.

Water from White City, near Sandy, took second place and the Upper Country water company from Altamont placed third.

The judges all said each was very good, with little difference among them.

"This is the second time we've come in second. Next time we're going to come in first," Pauline Flint, chair of the White City board, joked as she accepted the award.

The association holds the taste-test every year, and past winners have sometimes used the recognition to help advertise their communities, in addition to bragging rights.

Last year's winner was Monroe, a town in Sevier County that ended up finishing in second place in the association's national conference in Washington, D.C.

Dale Pierson, executive director of the association, said Utah water is often among the best in the country, benefiting from its mountain terrain and the idea that its geographical position at the “head of the ditch.”